Houston sports radio ratings sluggish in June

Published 11:47 am, Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, the time frame that includes most of the locally generated sports talk in Houston, the three stations that managed ratings in the June book managed a combined 4.3 percent of the audience for men 25-54, the primary demographic for sports talk.

From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, the time frame that includes most of the locally generated sports talk in Houston, the three stations that managed ratings in the June book managed a combined 4.3 percent of the

This exciting, event-filled summer of 2017 continues to be belied by sluggish Nielsen Audio ratings for Houston's four all-sports stations.

From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, the time frame that includes most of the locally generated sports talk in Houston, the three stations that managed ratings in the June book managed a combined 4.3 percent of the audience for men 25-54, the primary demographic for sports talk.

The iHeartMedia station this week unveiled a new lineup that includes Josh Innes' move to morning drive and the addition of Jayson Braddock to the Adam Clanton-Sean Jones show that now moves to afternoon drive time. It will take at least a couple of months for results to begin filtering in for that changeover, though, and by that time we will be in the midst of what the stations hope will be a football-generated upturn.

For the moment, though, it's KILT once again narrowly on top among sports stations in the 6 a.m.-7 p.m. and weeklong men 25-54 numbers. KBME retains the weeklong sports lead in persons 12-plus, the one demo where Nielsen will countenance disclosure of ratings, with a 1.2 share to 1.0 for KILT and 0.3 for KFNC (97.5 FM), which, as you may recall from this space last week, is having signal interference issues these days.

By comparison, the combined 4.1 weeklong share among men 25-54 for the three sports stations that draw a measurable audience (KGOW, 1560 AM, being the outlier), ranks behind nine other individual stations.

KILT is tied for 20th and KBME is 22nd in the weeklong men 25-54 numbers, with KFNC at 26th. KILT is 19th and KBME 21st in morning drive, the stations are 21st and 22nd, respectively, in middays (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) and are 19th and 21st, respectively, in afternoon drive time (3-7 p.m.).

KBME is tied for 13th from 7 p.m. to midnight, thanks to the Astros, and leads its two competitors combined with room to spare.

Returning to persons 12-plus, KILT leads KBME in morning drive, 1.2 to 1.0, with KFNC at 0.6. The two are essentially tied at midday at 0.8, with KBME holding a slight edge in one measuring category, with KFNC at 0.4. KILT led 1.3 to 1.0 in afternoon drive with KFNC at 0.4. KBME's 2.6 share at night led KILT at 0.6 and KFNC at 0.3.

Just to emphasize how weak the Houston ratings are by comparison, three Dallas-Fort Worth all-sports stations combined for a 6.6 percent share in a comparable demo for the week during this ratings period to 2.5 for four Houston stations.

Here are the Nielsen Audio show by show rankings for the three Houston sports radio stations for the June ratings book, which covered May 25-June 21.